Dreams and Destiny
by BuckeyeBelle
Summary: Jonas recovers from his operation. Metamorphosis epilogue.


Dreams and Destiny

by Rebecca Ratliff

EMAIL: rmratliff@adelphia.net

DATE: April 2003

ARCHIVE: If I haven't submitted to your archive, please ask. (I'll say yes, I just like to know where it is.)

CATEGORY: Tag, angst, hurt/comfort.

RATING: PG

SPOILERS: Season 6, Metamorphosis, Prophecy

SEASON/SEQUEL INFO: Season 6, after Prophecy.

SUMMARY: Jonas recovers from his operation.

DISCLAIMER: All Stargate SG-1 characters are the property of Stargate SG-1 Productions (II) Inc., MGM Worldwide Television Productions Inc., Double Secret Productions, Gekko Film Corp and Showtime Networks Inc. No infringement of those rights is intended. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. Anybody that you don't recognize is probably mine, so if you borrow them please send me an email to let me know where they are and have them home by midnight. :)

FEEDBACK: Much appreciated.

* * *

There was nothing more boring than being stuck in the infirmary on bed rest. Except maybe doing endless repetitions of an ESP test with a silly pack of cards.

O'Neill cut the deck and dealt a card face down. Jonas guessed, "Star." He turned it up, it was a circle. "Twenty-two percent that time."

"Looks like you really are back to normal."

"I hope so," the Kelownan said. "Last night I dreamed I saw Kelowna City in flames."

Jack said, "I used to have nightmares like that during the cold war, especially after I was in a position to know exactly how close we came a few times. That's just one of the ways people deal with the unthinkable. It's fear of what could happen, not prophecy of something that's going to happen."

Jonas nodded, wanting very much to believe that. "I'm never going home, am I? They're going to blow themselves to hell and I can't do anything about it."

"We haven't exterminated ourselves yet," Jack pointed out. "If Earth could manage maybe Kelowna will too."

He nodded.

"Headache again?"

"No, I'm just tired."

"That's enough of this crap for one day. That's one thing about MacKenzie, you have to know when to tell him to stuff a sock in it. Sometimes he can't seem to tell the difference between his lab rats and his patients."

"Yeah, I figured that out after we got back from Nirrti's planet. He just wouldn't lay off Major Carter."

O'Neill put two and two together and got four. "Let me guess, that was the day you busted your knuckles and Carter was so upset in her lab."

"Yes, sir."

"What happened when you hit him?"

"I knocked him on his ass. He threatened to report me to General Hammond. I told him to report away, and I'd tell the general the reason why, and he ought to be thankful it was me instead of you or Teal'c."

"You got that right. I wish I'd known about this when it happened, Jonas."

"I'm sorry, sir, but neither of us wanted it to look like we were running home and tattling to nanny. Anyway, he's never liked me much since then, and I can't exactly deck him again until I can get out of this damned bed."

Fraiser asked, "Deck who?"

"MacKenzie," they chorused.

"Uh-huh," she replied, unsurprised.

Jack said, "Reassign Jonas to somebody else. MacKenzie has an ax to grind with Jonas over something else, and he's wearing him out with these damn fool ESP tests. You tell him if he ever messes with my kids again, he's messing with me. If he has to hear it again from me, he won't be happy about it. I don't make a habit of throwing my rank around here much, but he's skating on the edge of a report that won't do his file jacket any good."

Fraiser didn't like it much at all when one of her staff put her in the position of defending her department to another team leader. "Yes, sir, I'll take care of it."

O'Neill nodded. It was as good as done. She put it away while she examined Jonas, but when she finished, O'Neill saw the storm clouds gathering again. When she left, he laughed, "MacKenzie's really gonna wish you'd just knocked him on his ass again by the time Fraiser gets done chewing it off."

Jonas grinned, the dark mood of his nightmare dispelled by the image of Fraiser tearing into MacKenzie. "Thank you, sir."

* * *

Light-years across the galaxy, two men sat at a console in a concrete bunker far underground. With a sigh of relief, each removed a key from the console and flipped a bank of switches from "ready" back to "standby." This time, they thanked their gods, it had been merely a drill. They resumed their isolated vigil, a few hundred yards from a warhead which, along with its siblings, could spell the end of life on their planet. For now, the demons slept a restless sleep in their concrete dens, waiting for some fool to give the order to unleash cataclysm.

* * *

In his hospital bed, alone in the early hours of the morning, Jonas Quinn prayed that last night's dream had not been prophetic.

Lynn Rush came by on her rounds. "Jonas? What's wrong?"

He forced a smile. "Nothing. Can you sit for a while?"

"Just a few minutes." She sat in the chair and took his hand. Dr. Fraiser was somewhat relaxed about public displays of affection. Within reason. "Can't sleep?"

"Just thinking about things," he sighed. "I hate being cooped up."

"You aren't as bad as Colonel O'Neill. He gets _so _grouchy. I probably shouldn't be saying that, but it's true."

"Would I get out faster if I was a grouch?"

Lynn laughed. "No!"

"Well, I'll leave it to him, then," Jonas grinned.

"Y'know...I've been thinking about this whole prophecy thing, _if_ it ever happens again. I think your job is to be a witness. God gave you all these talents to make you good at that. You remember every detail of what you see, and you have a gift for explaining things in plain English. All you have to do is give people the message that they're supposed to have. It's their job to figure out what to do with it. Seeing these things, these possible futures, it doesn't mean the responsibility for their decisions rests on you."

"I saw my homeworld destroy itself, Lynn. Colonel O'Neill thinks it was a nightmare. I hope he's right. How do I know?"

"Your visions are about things that can be changed, like Major Carter getting hurt, and the Goa'uld raiding that planet. Things that we can do something about. If that was a prophecy, then doesn't it stand to reason that someone can change it, that there's someone you're supposed to tell? Maybe telling the colonel, or even telling me, was what you were supposed to do."

"Maybe," he said thoughtfully.

"I think you just have to have faith, because even if you see a possible future, that's what it is--a possibility. It's what we do with the possibilities that counts."

Jonas kissed her fingers. "You're a very wise lady, do you know that?"

She smiled. "I can make a prediction right now. If you stay awake worrying till all hours, you're gonna be in this bed a lot longer than you want to be."

"All right, all right, I'll make sure that one doesn't come true."

She dimmed the lights. "I've got to get back to work, but I'll stop by when I get off duty."

"Good night, Lynn."

"Good night." Jonas drifted off to sleep as she quietly went back to her rounds.

_end_


End file.
